Hon. Mary Jane McCallum: Thank you. Could you expand on biomonitoring as it applies to Indigenous people and when you think it will come to fruition? In other words, what are the areas we have gone over that will be excluded because this cannot be done at this time?

Senator Kutcher: Thank you very much for that excellent question. Biomonitoring, which means looking at the accumulation of substances in the human body — you can look at that through blood work or your nails, hair, tissue and other things — is an essential component of being able to determine how substances impact human health, not just at one point in time but over longer periods of time.

We need the capacity to do that kind of biomonitoring work in the general population, but also very importantly in vulnerable populations. With respect to people who are living in environments in which toxicity is known to be potentially greater, biomonitoring tells us what we need to know in terms of the impact of environment on human health. Canada currently does some biomonitoring but not enough. We heard from witnesses that the biomonitoring has to be much more robust. Many more people need to be involved. It has to reflect the variety of Canadians, of the Canadian population. It cannot just be given to one group. All Canadian groups have to be involved in the biomonitoring so we can see what differential effects the environment can have on different groups.

We also heard testimony that Indigenous peoples are not included in the routine biomonitoring, and certainly not as included as they should be in terms of large enough numbers for us to get a good understanding of what’s happening to Indigenous peoples.

Because we can’t put money into this bill in the Senate, we strongly urge through our observations that these scientific necessities be improved dramatically within Canada and that the other place address those in this bill. Thank you very much, Senator McCallum, for that question.